Pastor Eric Dammann of the Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey knows what our dangerously bright young people need — a good old fashioned beating. He is just the person to give it to them, too.
There was a young man in Calgary. His name was Ben. I was running a youth camp. I was there for a few years. He was a nice kid, but one of those kids that was always just, — he was a real smart aleck. He was a bright kid, which didn’t help things — made him more dangerous.
We were outside one day at youth group, and he was just trying to push my buttons. He was just kind of not taking the Lord serious.
And I walked over to him and went BAM! Punched him in the chest as hard as I could. I crumpled the kid. I just crumpled him.
Then I leaned over and said, ‘Ben, when are you going to stop playing games with God?’ I led that man to the Lord right there. There's times when that might be needed.
Of course! What bright kid wouldn't be instantly converted to Christianity by being sucker-punched by some authoritarian lunatic with severe anger management issues?
In an interview with the Daily News, Dammann said this was all taken out of context and that he was chock-full of regret.
"I do not endorse child abuse or the punching of children," he said. "My intention in the sermon was to make a point of how God can use our mistakes. The viral clip does not show the whole sermon, where I say what I did was wrong."
Oh really? Taken out of context, was it? Is that why at the end of your violent little screed you insist that beating a child "may be necessary" to win them over to your world view? It appears that he merely regrets that, as of this writing, nearly 2 million Youtube viewers found him to be a dangerous asshole for Jesus.